Consumer’s Online Brand-Related Activities on the Social Network Instagram: An Analytical View of the Motivation for These Activities

Abstract

The method of categorizing consumers’ online brand-related activities (COBRA) is a relatively recent finding in marketing research. Based on this, there is a need for further exploration of a related issue. One of these is the relational link between COBRAs and consumer motivations for these activities. With this research, this study aims to assess the statistical significance of such trajectories of relationships of the motivations on consumers’ online brand-related activities related to all three levels of brand-related content activities in terms of the social network platform Instagram. These motivations have origins in the uses and gratification theory. Three levels of analyzed activities are the most recent comprehensive classification. The research database was made up of responses from 335 online questionnaires. The collection of data was carried out in the 1st half of 2021. Primary data were analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis and PLS PM (Partial least squares path modelling) equations, while average variance extracted metric and composite reliability were used to describe the suitability of the latent variables that entered the analysis. For the analysis, four research hypotheses were formulated dealing with 12 partial trajectories of relationships, of which only three trajectories were not statistically significant. However, at least one significant trajectory was identified for each motivation, allowing us to confirm all formulated hypotheses. The findings of the analysis supported the claims of the existence of statistically significant effects for all the motivations investigated against consumers’ online brand-related activities. The obtained results also identified social interaction as the strongest motivator. The authors discussed the potential drivers and implications for theory and practice in a separate section, comparing with existing related research. The most significant contribution of this research is considered to be the confirmation of the exploratory findings that link COBRA activities and motivations on a scale that has not yet been analyzed (by this we mean 3 levels of activity and 4 categories of motivation). This formed the basis for this investigation, and the results obtained are in agreement.